Prostate cancer detection in Black and White men with abnormal digital rectal examination and prostate specific...

Prostate cancer is more common in black than in white American men. Experience in a longitudinal prostate cancer screening program implies that cancer detection is greater in black than in white men with an abnormal digital rectal examination and prostate specific antigen (PSA) less than 4 ng./ml. We investigated potential racial differences in cancer detection in men treated in clinical practice who had an abnormal digital rectal examination and PSA less than 4 ng./ml.

Between January 1992 and December 1999 prostate biopsy was done at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 179 black and 357 white men with an abnormal digital rectal examination, PSA less than 4 ng./ml. and no history of prostate surgery. Significant racial differences in demographic and clinical parameters were limited to PSA, which was higher in black men (p = 0.01).

Cancer was detected in 38 black (21%) and 65 white (18%) men (p = 0.42). There were no significant racial differences in the PSA adjusted cancer detection rate or in the Gleason score of detected disease. In men with PSA less than 1.0, 1.0 to 1.9, 2.0 to 2.9 and 3.0 to 3.9 ng./ml. the detection rate was 4%, 15%, 27% and 29%, respectively.

In clinical practice prostate cancer detection appears to be equivalent in black and white men when an abnormal digital rectal examination is the only indication of malignancy.